


Technophobia

by Laurel_Athena



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, Non-Graphic Violence, droid, evil bb8
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 18:03:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6386890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laurel_Athena/pseuds/Laurel_Athena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Kylo Ren gets a new droid, at first Hux thinks it's kind of cute, but soon decides something is very wrong with the little rolling ball of evil.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Technophobia

**Author's Note:**

> Done as a fill for a kink meme prompt requesting an evil counterpart for BB-8:  
> http://tfa-kink.dreamwidth.org/3467.html?thread=7801483#cmt7801483

When Ren first returns to the spaceship with a new droid companion, Hux sneers disdainfully. With its small, round body and even smaller lightsaber – a chopstick sized duplicate of its Sith master’s weapon – the droid is almost cute, and Hux thinks it cannot possibly be useful for much of anything. And for the first few weeks his doubts seem justified; DRK-13 does nothing but roll along behind Ren and chirrup nonsensical beeps and blips that nobody but the knight can understand. Hux had never had much patience for droids. He preferred normal machinery with no brain, or humans, whose brains he could typically understand and manipulate. It was just wrong, computers trying to think for themselves. That was why he had never before allowed droids aboard his ship or prized Starkiller base, despite being up to date on every other technological standard. But Kylo Ren had grown up with droids, before he was Kylo Ren, and apparently decided recently that he needed a droid in his life again. Hux thinks it is ridiculous, but cannot actually stop the knight, so he tolerates the single small droid coming into his territory. 

Then Ren takes the droid out with them to the next battle, and Hux watches it fell its first victim. The little droid wields its lightsaber with all the precision that Ren never had, slicing cleanly through a resistance fighter’s Achilles heel, bringing her crashing down. It rolls up to cut through her throat, earning a gurgling scream before her life winks out. A panel slides open, revealing another thin metallic arm reaching out toward her face and – 

And Hux misses whatever happens next, because people are kriffing shooting at him, and the firefight takes up all his attention now. At the end of the battle, he watches DRK-13 follow its master back onto the ship, both of them covered in blood, and wonders how many of the enemy the startlingly efficient little bot had killed. As if it knew he was thinking about it, the headpiece slid around to stare unblinking at Hux for a few tense moments before rolling away.

Later that day he runs into Kylo Ren alone in the hallway. The knight is of course accompanied by his new droid, but something seems different now. After a moment, Hux is able to place his finger on the change. “I hope you’re planning on getting the technicians to do some maintenance on your friend there.” He snipes at Ren, who has clearly taken the time to wash it clean of blood but seems entirely unconcerned by the new clattering noise from inside the droids body as it rolls across the floor behind him. “It sounds as though some parts have broken loose inside.”  
“Oh no, that’s just his new collection.” Ren replies, and Hux is a bit startled to hear the machine referred to as a “he”. Hux refuses to do the same, giving it a gender is too much like admitting the thing is sentient, or something eerily close to it. “Would you like to see?” DRK-13 rolls closer to the general and it takes a surprising amount of effort to not instinctively back away from the “click click click” of whatever is rattling around inside the thing. A panel in the middle of one of its first order insignias slides out and then unfurls like a deranged metal flower, revealing twelve perfect human teeth. The general chokes on his shock and disgust. He is used to violence and the results of it, but this collection of gruesome trophies by an artificial intelligence feels intimately wrong in a way none of the human acts of violence he had experienced ever did. He knows he should say something, maintain the snarky banter he and his co-commander are accustomed to, but can’t find any words. The three of them stand there, filling the otherwise empty hallway with their silence, until Ren apparently decides he has enjoyed enough of Hux’s horror. He snaps his fingers and the collection disappears back into the droid’s body. As it follows its master away, DRK-13’s head turns back towards the general, its eyes glowing red like its lightsaber as it stares him down while clitter-clacking away. Hux wonders how he could have ever thought the creepy thing was cute. He thinks he might throw up.

He comes to dread the stomp of Ren’s boots even more than he had before, now that it is followed by an ominous clattering and those glowing, inhuman eyes. He had never been afraid of Ren, and he would be damned if he were afraid of a droid half his size, but there is something deeply unsettling about being the center of its inhuman attentions. Because he is. Ever since they returned from that first battle, DRK-13 has been watching Hux. At first he thinks it is a trick of his imagination. There is no rational reason to think the rolling droid would have any special interest in him. But that does not stop the irrational voice in the back of his mind insisting something is deeply wrong with the situation.

So he reviews security footage of him and Ren together, hoping to reassure himself that he is being paranoid and thus put an end to it. It doesn’t work. In the footage, Kylo Ren is on the bridge before him, shouting something at Mitaka while the droid rolls aimlessly around, occasionally extending a thin metal arm to push at buttons or startle an officer. Then Hux strides into the room, and the droid immediately turns to face him. It does not resume its normal behavior until its master storms out in a rage and the droid follows him. It is just a fluke, he tells himself, and digs further back in the files for another scene. But it is not a fluke. In every piece of footage featuring both himself and the droid, it is watching him. It does not do this to anyone else, only Hux. He sleeps poorly that night, dreams filled with glowing red eyes and a hollow rattle.

And then it starts showing up without Ren. He’ll be going about his business and then there will be a clattering of teeth, and there the little droid will be, staring him down from a doorway. It begins following him almost constantly, not with the easy obedience that it followed Ren with, but a slow stalking. He cannot seem to go anywhere outside his private quarters without feeling those red eyes on him. The day it pulls its tiny lightsaber out while Hux is eating dinner is the day he decides to finally confront Ren.

As they are approaching the dining hall at the end of shift the next day, he demands that the knight keep the droid with him, rather than letting it disrupt Hux’s work and leisure time. The Sith lord seems amused that Hux would complain about his new companion. “DRK-13 actually quite likes you.” He says, and the droid warbles something incomprehensible. His knowing smirk takes on a cruel edge as he translates, “He says you have very nice teeth.” 

Hux can’t breathe. His face turns even paler than normal and his heart drops into his stomach as he stutters out, “I have to go. I’m needed on the bridge.” and turns on his heel to stride away down the hallway. He is definitely not running away, but he is still pursued by Ren’s mocking laughter and that dreadful rattle of human teeth within cold metal.


End file.
